These 15 Small Lifestyle Changes Will Improve Your Life Today

We’ve all been there at one point in our life. We are stuck in a rut or been living a life that we know we can make more of. Problem is going about the right changes to make those improvements. It is not an easy road but with these 15 small lifestyle changes, you can get out of your rut and improve your life today.

1. The Twenty Minute Rule

In today’s world, we want news fast and information now. We come home from a long day at work to find ourselves engaging in mindless activities like Facebook, Reddit, TV you name it.

Most of us think that these are great ways to unwind until they occupy not minutes but hours of our time.

Instead of gluing yourself in front of the TV, take twenty minutes to try one of the following:

Read a book

Write an article or blog

Learn a foreign language

Meditate

If these don’t suit you, find something that will encourage your personal and professional growth.

2. Take A Positive Angle

Life is full of numerous situations involving gray areas. These gray area situations can lead to indecisiveness and create chaos and anxiety in our lives. Instead of becoming overwhelmed, look at situations from a positive angle. It’ll lead you to make the best decision with less emotion and ego.

3. Go For A Run

Running is not only good for you, its free. It just takes buying a good pair of running shoes and hitting the road. Running also boosts your immune system and improve weight loss.

5. Drink Water

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate. Your body is made of approximately of 60 percent water and drinking water helps support body functions as digestion, body temperature regulation. It also helps boost your metabolism.

But that doesn’t mean start pounding liters of water immediately. Bring a water bottle with you and start working your way to the recommended guideline of eight cups throughout your day.

6. Don’t Go to the Grocery Store Hungry

We’ve all done this. We come back from the gym or home from work and we haven’t eaten since lunch. We start acting goofy and looking for the first thing to stuff our face. Going to the grocery store on an empty stomach sets the stage for a disastrous shopping cart filled with unhealthy snacks and overeating.

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When you are ready to head to the store, eat a health conscious meal. Not only will make you feel better, it’ll make your choices at the grocery store more health conscious and reduce the chances you’ll pick up the pack of Oreos on the way out.

7. Start Reading

Just like your body needs to exercise, so does your brain. Reading gives your brain the mental workout it needs to stay sharp and improve its performance. It can be intimidating at first but starting out with short books that are easy to read will help gain confidence in attacking those Game of Thrones books everyone has been talking about. Some books that are great to start with are The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea.

8. Learn to Say No

This is a tough one. We want to make people happy and sometimes, not saying no does more harm than good. You may end up with more projects and commitments than you can handle.

First, know that is acceptable and OK to say no. Second, say no to things that you cannot be of value or service to others. Doing these will help make your life stress free and seamless.

9. Stop Walking Down The Street Glued to Your Phone

Everyday, more and more of us on walking down the street face down glued to email or Facebook. Sooner or later, someone is going to get really hurt because we aren’t watching where we are going. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people almost get hit by cars crossing a street because they were texting and walking.

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If you need to look at your phone, stand off to the side on a busy sidewalk or find a place where you can sit down.

Just don’t be this guy.

10. Eat Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When we wake up, our bodies have been deprived of food and water. Skipping breakfast leads to being Hangry while reducing productivity and our energy levels. Make sure you start your day off with a protein packed meal and a glass of water to give you a much needed energy boost.

11. Get Rid of the Negative Nancies

You know who they are. They are the people in your life that always have something to say about what you are doing, complain when you all out on Saturday night, and never say anything nice about anyone.

These people will weigh you down. They will never encourage you. They will continue to hold you down and keep you from doing you. Start hanging out with those closest to you who are positive and encouraging. They are the ones who want you to achieve your goals and have a good time with you on the weekends.

12. Live Within Your Means

We all hate bills. We hate debt too. When the two combine together, they can put a huge damper on our quality of life and effect our chances to save for the future. Money is a big stressor and its important to live within your means otherwise, you could be in big trouble.

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Create a budget that allows you to pay your bills and give you a chance to save for the future. Ask friends for help or someone who can get you on the right track . Try these 8 Steps to Creating a Personal Budget to get your started.

13. Stop Complaining

If you don’t like your situation, change it. Complaining gets you nowhere,making you look unreliable and unattractive to others. Start with #2 and become more optimistic. You’ll find that things aren’t always bad as they seem and it’ll put you in a position to learn from every experience.

14. Ask For Help

Every successful entrepreneur, doctor, actor has received some form of help from their loved ones and family. They were encouraged, loved and supported to be what they wanted. Think about your parents and how many times they have helped you get to where you want to be. Everyone needs it and it’s OK to ask for it.

When applying these 15 lifestyle changes, find someone you trust who will help you stay on track. When the going gets tough, those people closest to you will give you the support and help you need to get over that hump. If you don’t know how to ask for help, offer help to others who may need it. Not only will it make you feel good, it will make you feel better about asking for assistance in the future.

15. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs said it best during his famous speech at Stanford University. It is truly one of the greatest and most inspiring speeches of our time.

In life, we all need to be conscientious of what we are doing. You don’t need to live a life of stress if you don’t want to. You can achieve peace and happiness in life by carefully building mindfulness exercises into your life’s routine.

Exercising mindfulness isn’t rocket science and as importantly, you can do it. It will, however, take a few tries to get into the groove of things but once you get it, it is like riding a bike, you will never lose it.

Trust me. It’s in your best interest to learn and put these mindfulness exercises into practice. In this article, I will share with you 8 mindfulness exercises that will help you to boost your energy, vitality and live a more peaceful and happier life.

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Why Is It Hard to Live A Peaceful And Happy Life?

Our Habitat Has Become Too Technological

The world has accepted the idea that technology is often the cure for all evil. We have accepted, as a society, that everything technological will make us live a better life without fully investigating the many side effects that modernity brings.

There are a number of technological side effects that have a tremendous impact on your life that the media rarely tells you about.[1] Some of them include self-harm, economic inequality, having less sex, and even suicide. The global community is becoming less happy because of technology.

How can anybody live a peaceful and happy life when they are depressed? Technology advancements, ladies and gents, is a major reason for why we are living a poor life because it has infiltrated our lives too much.

According to my research, Americans spend an average of 8 hours a day looking at the computer screen — The average screen time spent on smartphones alone is about 20 hours per week. That’s a lot! No wonder why living a happy and peaceful life is so difficult these days.

Too Many People Don’t Want to Unplug

Americans check their phones an average of 80 times during vacation.[2] Some admit to checking their smartphones 300 times every single day. In countries like Brazil, India and China, the situation is no different.

The reality is that people are constantly plugged into technological devices and this behavior is literally making people all over the globe fight an inner war with themselves, which consequently makes them very sad. As we know, war is the enemy of peace which won’t make anybody happy.

Listen carefully:

We have a global anxiety epidemic because people don’t want to unplug from their smartphones and most people aren’t doing anything to fix it. It is a sad state of affairs but very real. This obsession with technology is turning us into perishable robots who live terrible lives.

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The era of anxiety is here to stay. There is little doubt about it. We can, however, fight back with the best remedy of all — We call it mindfulness!

Thank God there is an antidote to this whole technological madness. Without further ado, let’s go straight to the mindful exercises.

8 Mindfulness Exercises to Start Practicing

There are tons of mindfulness exercises available for you to engage with out there.[3] In the paragraphs below, I will include the best ones I’ve personally tried or have seen my close friends and family members try.

Are you ready for it? Let’s go!

1. Pray Daily

You should pray on a daily basis. Why is that you may ask — Well, because science has told us to do so.

When people pray, they feel peaceful, almost eliminating anxiety. Worries become secondary, and often gives people energy and hope to cope with the difficulties of life.

Prayer can make you more confident and focused. Prayer also helps you with self-control, helps to control pain, and can protect you against illnesses and disorders like cancer and high blood pressure. At least, this is what researchers from Harvard Medical School have said.[4]

Pray. You won’t regret it.[5]

2. Pay Attention to Your Inner Thoughts

A lot of people allow themselves to be influenced by their negative thoughts. Be different and resist believing in them. It is a bad habit that can lead to unhappiness.

By the way, if you do feel this way, chances are high that somebody other than you put these thoughts into your head.

Here is my secret to combat this cancer — look at things objectively. I bet that if you look at things as they are, you will realize that most if not all of your negative thoughts are only inside of your head.

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If you pay close attention, you will quickly realize that these voices aren’t worth your time. Believe me — Ignoring them and looking at things with objectivity is often the best course of action.

Smile often! You may want to smile early in the morning, during the day, and late in the evening. It is amazing what happens to you when you decide to smile instead of being grumpy.

Surrender your problems to a nice smile. You will notice two things. First, most people just don’t which makes them live a miserable life. Second, if you decide to smile often, you will eventually smile unconsciously which is the ideal.

The moment that you smile unconsciously, you then know that you are truly happy.

4. Organize Your Working Desk

A messy desk will make you less productive and can agitate and overstimulate you. You don’t want that.

When you clear your desk, you engage in deep inner-thinking and your systematic decision making ends up becoming therapeutic.

Most people realize that they are most creative when their creative space is clean and organized. The former often makes people more aware of what they are doing which lends to less stress and more productivity.

Organizing your desk will also make you more energetic and focused because order often decreases chaos which is a condition that often slows down daily progress.

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5. Celebrate Your Friend’s Victories

I love this mindful exercise. One of the best ways to live a happy and peaceful life is to celebrate the victories of others. When you do that, you automatically make your friends in a better mood which makes you in a better mood, as well.

Happiness is contagious! We might as well celebrate others as much as we can. If you find out that your peer has won an award, celebrate with him! If your friend is the recipient of a local charity award, celebrate with her!

What is also awesome is that when you celebrate with others, they often celebrate with you in return. This, ladies and gentleman, will make you feel fantastic. You can’t go wrong with this one, period.

6. Listen to Your Spouse/Partner

God put someone in your life for a reason. You might as well listen to him or her.

I listen to my wife everyday. In fact, I often ask the following question to her, “Amanda, what are your thoughts about…” or “What am I missing about…” It is shocking what I hear back from her. Without her having much context and perspective, by the art of observation in my own nonverbal behavior and the behavior of others, she accurately gives me incredible insights which helps me out with living my life to the fullest.

I’m a firm believer that spouses are supposed to engage in interpersonal communication every day. I most definitely do and will continue doing it. You should do the same.

7. Give Yourself a Break from Technology

You can’t be in total equilibrium if your computerized devices control your life. You must get away from technology on a daily basis.[6]

How do you do that? This is my formula:

First, take this smartphone control test. It is only ten questions but this test will place you somewhere in the human robot cycle continuum.

If your score is between 25-30, take a break from the computer (or smartphone, pad, laptop/desktop) every twenty minutes and stop being on a computerized device after 8:00pm.

If you score between 30-35, still take a break every 20 minutes but stop being on these devices at 5:00pm.

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If you score more than 35, you need to take action immediately.

Limit computer use as much as possible throughout the day. Give yourself as many breaks from the computer as possible. Are you ready for the challenge?

8. Go Exercise

Go exercise at least three times a week. I don’t care if you need to workout early in the morning, late in the evening, on the weekends or during work days. Working out is absolutely imperative for you to live happy and peaceful life.

The stresses of the modern world are too much for you to neglect this important mindfulness exercise. When you go to the gym, you burn calories, focus on activities one step at a time, your mind relaxes, anxiety decreases, you sweat and often think about topics unrelated to your work place among many other benefits.

You must exercise at least three hours each week for optimum results. Why? Just take a look at all the benefits of regular exercising:

The Bottom Line

It’s in your best interest to learn and put these mindfulness exercises into practice. Now that our habitat has become too technological and many people just don’t want to unplug, engaging in daily prayer, celebrate your friends’ victories, and listening to your spouse are among the best ways to be mindful about what you are doing and how you are living.

It is possible to live a happy and peaceful life. It only depends on you.

Go exercise! Take a break from technology and invest in you! Life is too short for distractions.